On October 24, 2005, Melvin Wayne White, a death-sentenced inmate in the Huntsville Prison in Livingston Texas filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Texas Department of Corrections in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. White complained to the Court that the ... read more >

On October 24, 2005, Melvin Wayne White, a death-sentenced inmate in the Huntsville Prison in Livingston Texas filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Texas Department of Corrections in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. White complained to the Court that the defendants' lethal injection protocol was unconstitutional, arguing that the executed was not properly anesthetized, allowing him to feel the excrutiating pain caused by the potassium chloride injection. He also argued that the use of the paralytic agent pancuronium bromide was arbitrary and unreasonable because it risked the infliction of torture, causing the executed to suffocate due to the inability to use his lungs. In addition, he argued that the defendants would need to use a painful cut-down procedure for placement of the IV's required for lethal injection due to the fact that his veins were damaged from illicit drug use. White asked the Court to enjoin the defendants from using their lethal injection protocol during his execution, and to stay his execution while this case was pending.

On the next day, the District Court (Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt) dismissed the complaint, reasoning that White had unreasonably delayed bringing the complaint, and that it was not distinguishable in any significant way from the facts in Harris v. Johnson (CJ-TX-3), a case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had denied the complaint. White appealed, and on November 1, 2005, the Fifth Circuit (Judges Edith Hollan Jones, Fortunato Pedro Benavides, and Edith Brown Clement) issued a per curiam opinion affirming the District Court's decision, agreeing with the District Court that White had unreasonably delayed his complaint.